Apostille Services
An apostille is a special stamp affixed to an official document to certify its authenticity. Once an apostille is affixed, the document becomes fully legal in the other country.
On December 22, 2003 Ukraine joined the Hague Convention that abolished the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents which had been in force since 1961. Ukraine applies the new procedure to the member countries of the Hague Convention. This has allowed simplifying the apostille affixing process. A duly procured apostille does not require additional certification. Every signatory state of the Hague Convention has a right to choose the agencies authorized to do apostilling.
In Ukraine, documents may be apostilled by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Education.
More specifically, once an apostille is affixed to the document, all you need is to obtain the notarized translation.
The choice of authority for having an apostille affixed depends on type of the document you submit.
An apostille can be only affixed to the documents issued by official bodies:
- Personal documents:
- diplomas, archive transcripts, training programs, educational certificates;
- different types of certificates (clear criminal record, residence, health status);
- documents issued by civil registry offices (marriage certificates, birth certificates, certificate of dissolution of marriage, etc.);
- documents made up by a notary (applications, statements, powers of attorney, affidavits, etc.).
- diplomas, archive transcripts, training programs, educational certificates;
- Corporate documents (registration certificate, powers of attorney, articles of association, etc.).
How Long Does it Take to Have an Apostille Affixed?
- in the Ministry of Justice – 1 to 5 business days;
- in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine – 2 to 5 business days; or up to 20 business days if you need to obtain additional information from the agency that issued the document.
- in the Ministry of Education of Ukraine – 10 to 40 business days depending on the type of the document and submission urgency.